Video: Excellent — concealed-carrier stops an armed robbery

posted at 9:21 pm on July 17, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

Ah, sweet justice — drink it in, it always goes down smooth. There are few things that warm my heart quite so much as watching a lawfully armed citizen give a good lesson to a couple of bad guys who seek to threaten, intimidate, and possibly cause fatal bodily harm to others while undermining the rule of law. In an Internet cafe in Florida the other night, two armed robbers likely gained a newfound respect for the Second Amendment, the hard way:

“Based on what I have seen and what I know at this time, I don’t anticipate filing any charges,” said Bill Gladson of the State Attorney’s Office for 5th Judicial Circuit.

Gladson said he has reviewed the security surveillance video from the cafe. While he still awaits final reports from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, he said the shooting appeared justified.

Samuel Williams, 71, who fired the shots, has a concealed weapons permit, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Under Florida law, a person is allowed to use deadly force if he or she fears death or serious injury to themselves or others. …

…At least one of his 30 fellow patrons at the cafe wants to thank him.

“I think he is wonderful. If he wouldn’t have been there, there could have been some innocent people shot,” said Mary Beach.

Absolutely textbook. I’m always amazed by people who seemed shocked or aghast by their friends and neighbors carrying weapons — if you don’t want to take the responsibility of owning and carrying a firearm upon your person, that’s fine. It’s your life, and you can cope with the risks. But I would think they’d be grateful when perfectly responsible, law-abiding citizens like this create a positive externality for everybody else by undertaking the task. Honestly, if criminals thought a few more people might be carrying concealed weapons in these instances, how much more or less eager do you think they’d be to try and commit the crime in the first place?

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‘The gun was broken and rusty and wasn’t loaded. Nobody was going to get hurt,’ [Henderson] told the paper

Hehe. So, at a minimum, he learned not to bring a knife to a gun fight. More perps die for this reason than you can imagine. “Hey,” goes the thinking, “I’ll just bring something that looks enough like a gun to scare everyone.” And, it does scare someone: an armed security guard, a police officer, a 2A-practicing citizen. Said scared person proceeds to shoot them.

[Henderson] thinks that the elderly man should have stopped shooting once he was already on the ground.

No, he should have put one in your heart to make sure you couldn’t shoot back. You’re lucky you could still run, and luckier he wasn’t a better shot.

But I’ve heard there’s problems with the 9MM as well. Isn’t that why the FBI went from 9MM to 40 Cal. because a lot of their agents got hit in an exchange with some bad guys in Florida a few years ago because their 9MM’s didn’t stop them?

Cleombrotus on July 18, 2012 at 1:47 AM

.
Three words would have saved the FBI agents lives and lots of money:

The FBI in the infamous Florida shootout was firing ball ammo. Ball ammo was part of the Geneva conventions where the goal was to wound the enemy (causing their army to have to expend people and resources caring for the wounded).

Our house was robbed 20+ years ago while we slept. Since then, all of our semi-automatics are loaded first with Glasers followed by JHP – in case potential intruders mistake concealment for cover.

I would be happier with my wife carrying a .45 but one step at a time.

I honestly think if Williams wanted those punks dead, they would be. At 71, he probably didn’t want the hassle of Sharpton, Jackson, and 2,000 of their race-baiting friends camped out in front of his house screaming “RACSIT!!!” So he intentionally did the bare minimum to save innocent lives and property.

Maddie on July 18, 2012 at 9:24 AM

Had he been able to discern that in the nanosecond before he acted, he would have also discerned he’d left the door wide open for a potential civil suit from the 2 he would shoot. Based on the comments they are making post-shooting, I’d bet his legal problems have not even begun.

The FBI in the infamous Florida shootout was firing ball ammo. Ball ammo was part of the Geneva conventions where the goal was to wound the enemy (causing their army to have to expend people and resources caring for the wounded).

PolAgnostic on July 18, 2012 at 10:56 AM

Wow, just wow; who knew?

There are reams of data on the Miami (& North Hollywood) shootouts and many factors beyond ammo as to why they went down the way they did.

Re: FBI ammo policy from the interweb-

“I was a Special Agent trainee in the academy when the Miami shoot out occurred. Policy re .357 ammo at the time I went to the field after graduation in June ’86, was that you carried .38 +P (Winchester 158 gr LSWCHP was issued to me) in the gun, but were authorized to carry .357 as your reload in your belt pouch or speed loader (Winchester .357 145 gr Silvertip was the issue .357 round at that time). Magnum ammo could be carried in the gun with approval of your SAC in extraordinary circumstances. Every FBI vehicle was supposed to have a box of .38 duty ammo in the glove compartment. I normally carried +P in my personal S&W Model 66 3″ with .357 ammo as reloads.”

The 2 bad guys were dispatched by one agent shooting a .357. Agent Dove (KIA) was shooting Winchester Silvertips (115gr.) from his 9MM. In the 80’s, the 9MM Silvertip was called the “FBI load”. The Silvertip is a skived hollowpoint, not ball ammo.

Had he been able to discern that in the nanosecond before he acted, he would have also discerned he’d left the door wide open for a potential civil suit from the 2 he would shoot. Based on the comments they are making post-shooting, I’d bet his legal problems have not even begun.

There are reams of data on the Miami (& North Hollywood) shootouts and many factors beyond ammo as to why they went down the way they did.

Which explains why the FBI switched to 10 mm as a result of the Miami shootout?

The North Hollywood shootout that comes to my mind (bank robbery by two men in multiple layers of body armor) occurred 20 years later and was not resolved by the FBI but by local law enforcement officers closing to a distance where they could shoot the bad guys in the feet and gaps in their armor.

The 2 bad guys were dispatched by one agent shooting a .357. Agent Dove (KIA) was shooting Winchester Silvertips (115gr.) from his 9MM. In the 80′s, the 9MM Silvertip was called the “FBI load”. The Silvertip is a skived hollowpoint, not ball ammo.
roy_batty on July 18, 2012 at 11:28 AM

The Silvertip was a known problem prior to the Miami shootout. It performed as a ball nose round. The FBI administrators were aware of the defeciency but refused to address it despite internal warnings it could result in the death of agents.

“Had he been able to discern that in the nanosecond before he acted, he would have also discerned he’d left the door wide open for a potential civil suit from the 2 he would shoot. Based on the comments they are making post-shooting, I’d bet his legal problems have not even begun.”

roy_batty on July 18, 2012 at 11:03 AM

Do you really think the punks family wouldn’t sue even if he had killed them? I would venture to say they would have trademarked their names and hired a race baiting lawyer. Maybe the hero just didn’t want dead humans on his conscious, even ones that deserved killing.

The Silvertip was a known problem prior to the Miami shootout. It performed as a ball nose round. The FBI administrators were aware of the defeciency but refused to address it despite internal warnings it could result in the death of agents.

Had he been able to discern that in the nanosecond before he acted, he would have also discerned he’d left the door wide open for a potential civil suit from the 2 he would shoot. Based on the comments they are making post-shooting, I’d bet his legal problems have not even begun.